Object detection and analysis via unmanned aerial vehicle

ABSTRACT

An unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) can include one or more cameras for capturing image data within a field of view that depends in part upon the location and orientation of the UAV. At least a portion of the image data can be processed on the UAV to locate objects of interest, such as people or cars, and use that information to determine where to fly the drone in order to capture higher quality image data of those or other such objects. Once identified, the objects of interest can be counted, and the density, movement, location, and behavior of those objects identified. This can help to determine occurrences such as traffic congestion or unusual patterns of pedestrian movement, as well as to locate persons, fires, or other such objects. The data can also be analyzed by a remote system or service that has additional resources to provide more accurate results.

BACKGROUND

As unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) or “drones” become moretechnologically advanced, and as the entry level costs for thesevehicles decreases, there is interest in determining ways to utilizethese devices to solve various problems or perform various tasks. Dronesare able to operate in locations and capture image views that would bedifficult to otherwise obtain using conventional cameras or devices. Theability to utilize these image views is limited, however, due to factorssuch as the limited processing capacity, data storage, andcommunications bandwidth of these devices. While larger drones can beused that can support additional resources, these drones aresignificantly more expensive to operate and are restricted as to whereand how they can operate.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

Various embodiments in accordance with the present disclosure will bedescribed with reference to the drawings which are described as follows.

FIG. 1 illustrates an example environment in which embodiments of thepresent invention can be practiced.

FIGS. 2A, 2B, and 2C illustrate an example process for locatingforeground objects in image data that can be utilized in accordance withvarious embodiments.

FIGS. 3A, 3B, 3C, and 3D illustrate features of objects identified inimage data that can be utilized in accordance with various embodiments.

FIGS. 4A, 4B, and 4C illustrate an example approach for determiningpositions of interest that can be utilized in accordance with variousembodiments.

FIGS. 5A, 5B, and 5C illustrate another example approach for obtainingadditional data for specific objects or positions of interest that canbe utilized in accordance with various embodiments.

FIG. 6 illustrates an example situation wherein image data is capturedfrom multiple angles to provide enhanced image data that can be utilizedin accordance with various embodiments.

FIGS. 7A and 7B illustrate example situations wherein objects orsituations can be detected in accordance with various embodiments.

FIGS. 8A and 8B illustrate systems and devices that can be utilized toimplement aspects of the various embodiments.

FIG. 9 illustrates an example process for counting objects of interestthat can be utilized in accordance with various embodiments.

FIG. 10 illustrates an example process for determining a flight path foran unmanned aerial vehicle that can be utilized in accordance withvarious embodiments.

FIG. 11 illustrates components of an example computing device that canbe utilized to implement aspects of the various embodiments.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Systems and methods in accordance with various embodiments of thepresent disclosure may overcome one or more of the aforementioned andother deficiencies experienced in conventional approaches to locatingand identifying physical objects. In particular, various embodimentsprovide mechanisms for locating objects of interest, such as people,vehicles, products, logos, fires, and other detectable objects. Variousembodiments enable these items to be identified, counted, tracked,monitored, and/or otherwise accounted for through the use of capturedimage data. The image data can be captured using one or more unmannedaerial vehicles (UAVs), or “drones,” among other such devices andsystems. Various other functions and advantages are described andsuggested below as may be provided in accordance with the variousembodiments.

There can be many situations where it may be desirable to locate objectsof interest, such as to determine the number of objects in a givenlocation at any time, as well as to determine patterns of motion,behavior, and other such information. As an example, FIG. 1 illustratesan environment 100 that corresponds to an urban area, such as mayinclude roads, intersections, sidewalks, buildings, and other suchfeatures. There may be many objects that move within this environment,as may include pedestrians 102, automotive vehicles 104, bicycles 106,and the like. Some of these objects may emit audio and/or radio signals108 or data, such as speech from a person, a detectable cell phonesignal, a wireless data signal (i.e., Wi-Fi or Bluetooth®) from avehicle or mobile device, engine noise, etc. At least some of theseobjects may be of interest to various persons or entities for variety ofreasons. For example, a traffic agency might be interested in the amountof traffic at any given time, including summary data such as directionsof traffic flow, congestion points, as well as variations in trafficover time. A traffic agency might also be interested in temporarydeviations from these patterns, such as may result from accidents,events, or other such occurrences. An agency also might be interested ina breakdown of the types of vehicles, such as the percentage of vehiclesthat correspond to taxis or commercial vehicles versus consumervehicles.

Similarly, a governmental or city agency or department might beinterested in obtaining such information for other types of traffic,such as pedestrian or bicycle traffic. This can include determiningdirections of motion, congestion points, behavior patterns, density, andother such information. This information can be useful in determining,for example, places for new crosswalks or bike lanes, or changes neededto crossing lights in order to improve daily movement of thepedestrians, bikes, Segways, skateboards, and other such objects ofinterest. This information can also help to identify locations ofinterest, such as by determining when people are moving towards acertain location in greater numbers than usual, or running away from aspecific location or region, among other such deviations from standardor observed behavior.

In addition to movement, traffic, and incident data that may be ofinterest to people such as cities or government agencies, suchinformation can be useful to other types of entities as well. Forexample, an advertiser might want to know the volume of traffic (auto,pedestrian, or otherwise) that passes by a given location over time,such that the advertiser can determine where to place advertising andhow much that advertising is worth. Similarly, the variations in thattraffic over time can enable more targeted advertising and pricingvariations throughout the day based upon variations in the amount oftraffic. A person such as a retailer or restaurateur can also use suchinformation to determine whether, and where, to open a store orrestaurant in that environment based on, for example, the amount of foottraffic passing a particular location, as well as the times at whichthat traffic passes by. If the drone is carrying advertising, such as bytowing a banner, the drone can use the data to determine a flight pathwhereby a maximum number of persons can have the banner within theirfield of view over a determined period of time.

An approach that can be used to determine this and other types ofinformation in such an environment will be discussed with respect toFIGS. 2A through 2C. In this example approach, image data can becaptured that includes one or more views of an environment 200 ofinterest, such as an urban center or transportation region. As usedherein, image data can refer to any of various types of data, as mayinclude one or more still images, video data, video frames or keyframes, panoramic images, and stereoscopic image data, among other suchoptions. Further, while environments such as cities and urban areas areprovided as primary examples, it should be understood that rural orsuburban areas, among other types of regions, can be utilized as wellwithin the scope of the various embodiments.

In FIG. 2A, as with FIG. 1, the example environment 200 includes asignificant number of stationary objects, as may relate to sidewalks,roads, buildings, stoplights, traffic signs, bus stops, and the like.These objects that generally do not move over time can be consideredbackground objects, such that these objects can be discerned fromobjects of interest in the foreground that move with respect to thesebackground objects.

Since the objects of interest (i.e., persons, dogs, cars, bicycles) willgenerally move over a period of time, these objects can be identifiedbased at least in part upon their movement in some embodiments. Whileapproaches such as computer vision can be used to analyze an entirescene of data, such as an image of the entire environment 200illustrated in FIG. 2A, such approaches can be relatively processor andmemory intensive. If the image is captured by a device such as anunmanned aerial vehicle (a UAV, referred to hereinafter as a “drone” forsimplicity, but such usage should not limit the scope of the variousembodiments to specific types of unmanned aircraft or vehicles unlessotherwise stated), that drone might have relatively limited processingand/or memory capacity, such that running a computer vision algorithm onfull resolution, full color video data may not be possible, or may notbe able to be performed with sufficient frequency for at least someapplications. While the video or image data can be transmitted to aremote system or service with sufficient processing, memory, and otherresource capacity for performing computer vision and object recognition,for example, the bandwidth required might exceed the availableconnection capacity, or a sufficient connection might not be able to bereliably and consistently obtained, among other potential issues.Further, if the analyzed data is to be used to help guide the drone tospecific locations, then the latency involved in transmitting andreceiving the data may be too great to be useful in various situations.Therefore, it can be desirable to minimize the amount of processing thatis to be performed on the drone itself.

One way to minimize the amount of processing to be performed on thedrone (or a base station associated with the drone, operations spreadacross a group of drones, etc.) is to remove, subtract out, or otherwisebe able to ignore portions of the image data that correspond tobackground objects or regions. As mentioned, the background generallywill remain stationary in the captured image data, at least where theimage data is captured from a single point of view. For instance, thestate of the environment 220 illustrated in FIG. 2B shows the locationsof the objects of interest at some time t after the state of theenvironment 200 illustrated in FIG. 2A. As can be seen, the majority ofthe pedestrians 102, vehicles 104, and bicycles have changed positionsand/or orientations between figures. It should be pointed out thatreference numbers may be carried over between figures for purposes ofsimplicity of explanation, but such usage should not be interpreted as alimitation on the scope of the various embodiments unless otherwisespecifically stated.

If image data is captured for both states of the environment 200, 220,and additional image data may be available for comparison, the portionsof the image data that correspond to background can be determined, andthose can be removed (or ignored) from the image data in order to leaveremaining those portions of the image data that correspond to the“foreground” objects. If a set of images or video is available for theenvironment, and the environment is viewed from a determined viewpoint,then the expected pixel values for each pixel location of an image willhave an average value that corresponds to the color, intensity, or othersuch factors of the background at that location. Although a pair ofimages such as those for FIGS. 2A and 2B can be used, a larger samplingof images can provide for a more accurate average value for each pixelposition. If the image data for FIG. 2B has the average values for thebackground subtracted from the values for each corresponding pixellocation, the remaining portions 240 of the image data will correspondto those portions of the image data that do not correspond to backgroundregions or objects, as the subtraction did not result in pixel values ofapproximately zero. It should be understood that lighting, shadow,motion, intensity, and other factors can affect the actual values aftersubtraction, such that there can be a threshold or range set around azero pixel value after subtraction such that pixels with pixel valueswithin a threshold value of zero will be considered background in atleast some embodiments. The remaining portions 240 will correspond to“blobs” of image data, or contiguous pixel regions, that each correspondto a determined foreground object, or a potential object of interest. Inthis way, the computer vision, object recognition, or other such processneed only consider the regions of the foreground objects as illustratedin FIG. 2C, as opposed to the full image data of FIG. 2B. An advantageto looking at the image data over time and performing an average is thatthe process tends to minimize the effect of temporary obstructions,lighting variations, noise, and other such factors that can temporarilyaffect the pixel values for various locations.

Various other approaches can be used for purposes of backgroundsubtraction, or foreground detection, as well within the scope of thevarious embodiments. For example, some amount of image pre-processingcan be performed for purposes of improving the quality of the image, asmay include filtering out noise, adjusting brightness or contrast, etc.In cases where the camera might be moving, some amount of position ormotion compensation may be performed as well. Background subtractionapproaches that can be utilized with various embodiments include meanfiltering, frame differencing, Gaussian average processing, backgroundmixture modeling, mixture of Gaussians (MoG) subtraction, and the like.Libraries such as the OPEN CV library can also be utilized to takeadvantage of the conventional background and foreground segmentationalgorithm.

Once the foreground portions or “blobs” of image data are determined,those portions can be processed using a computer vision algorithm forobject recognition or other such process. Object recognition typicallymakes use of one or more classifiers that have been trained to recognizespecific types of categories of objects, such as people, cars, bicycles,and the like. Algorithms used for such purposes can includeconvolutional or other deep neural networks (DNNs), as may utilize oneor more feature extraction libraries for identifying types of featurepoints of various objects. In some embodiments, a histogram or orientedgradients (HOG)-based approach uses feature descriptors for objectdetection, such as by counting occurrences of gradient orientation inlocalized portions of the image data. Other approaches that can be usedtake advantage of features such as edge orientation histograms, shapecontexts, and scale-invariant feature transform descriptors, althoughthese approaches may not provide the same level of accuracy for at leastsome data sets.

In some embodiments, an attempt to classify objects that does notrequire precision can rely on the general shapes of the blobs orforeground regions. For example, in the example foreground region 300 ofFIG. 3A, there are two blobs that correspond to different types ofobjects. The first blob 302 has an outline that a classifier mightindicate corresponds to a human with 85% certainty. Certain classifiersmight provide multiple confidence or certainty values, such that thescores provided might indicate an 85% likelihood that the blobcorresponds to a human and a 5% likelihood that the blob corresponds toan automobile, based upon the correspondence of the shape to the rangeof possible shapes for each type of object, which in some embodimentscan include different poses or angles, among other such options.Similarly, the second blob 304 has a shape that a trained classifiercould indicate has a high likelihood of corresponding to a vehicle. Forsituations where the objects are visible over time, such that additionalviews and/or image data can be obtained, the image data for variousportions of each blob can be aggregated, averaged, or otherwiseprocessed in order to attempt to improve precision and confidence. Asmentioned elsewhere herein, the ability to obtain views from two or moredifferent cameras can help to improve the confidence of the objectrecognition processes.

Where more precise identifications are desired, the computer visionprocess used can attempt to locate specific feature points as discussedabove. As examples, FIGS. 3B, 3C, and 3D illustrate portions of a human,a vehicle, and a bicycle, respectively. As mentioned, differentclassifiers can be used that are trained on different data sets and/orutilize different libraries, where specific classifiers can be utilizedto attempt to identify or recognize specific types of objects. Forexample, a human classifier might be used with a feature extractionalgorithm to identify specific feature points 302 of a foregroundobject, and then analyze the spatial relations of those feature pointsto determine with at least a minimum level of confidence that theforeground object corresponds to a human. The feature points located cancorrespond to any features that are identified during training to berepresentative of a human, such as facial features and other featuresrepresentative of a human in various poses. Similar classifiers can beused to determine the feature points 302 of other foreground object inorder to identify those objects as vehicles, bicycles, or other objectsof interest. If an object is not identified with at least a minimumlevel of confidence, that object can be removed from consideration, or adrone or other device can attempt to obtain additional data in order toattempt to determine the type of object with higher confidence. In someembodiments the image data can be saved for subsequent analysis by acomputer system or service with sufficient processing, memory, and otherresource capacity to perform a more robust analysis. In this way, theless resource intensive process can be used on the drone for a quick,relatively accurate determination, such as may be useful for determininga flight path for the drone, while a more robust processing can beperformed by cloud servers or other such computing resources in order todetermine a more accurate count or analysis of objects of interest in atleast some embodiments.

After processing using a computer vision algorithm with the appropriateclassifiers, libraries, or descriptors, for example, a result can beobtained that is an identification of each potential object of interestwith associated confidence value(s). One or more confidence thresholdsor criteria can be used to determine which objects to select as theindicated type. The setting of the threshold value can be a balancebetween the desire for precision of identification and the ability toinclude objects that appear to be, but may not be, objects of a giventype. For example, there might be 1,000 people in a scene. Setting aconfidence threshold too high, such as at 99%, might result in a countof around 100 people, but there will be a very high confidence that eachobject identified as a person is actually a person. Setting a thresholdtoo low, such as at 50%, might result in too many false positives beingcounted, which might result in a count of 1,500 people, one-third ofwhich do not actually correspond to people. For applications whereapproximate counts are desired, the data can be analyzed to determinethe appropriate threshold where, on average, the number of falsepositives is balanced by the number of persons missed, such that theoverall count is approximately correct on average. For many applicationsthis can be a threshold between about 60% and about 85%, although asdiscussed the ranges can vary by application or situation. A situationwhere a drone is attempting to identify the number of people in a crowdfrom 400 feet in the air an utilize a threshold that is substantiallylower than for a camera at ten feet that is identifying the number ofpeople in a room, based upon factors such as resolution and effects ofslight camera rotations on the captured data, etc.

The ability to recognize certain types of objects of interest, such aspedestrians, bicycles, and vehicles, enables various types of data to bedetermined that can be useful for a variety of purposes. As mentioned,the ability to count the number of cars stopped at an intersection orpeople in a crosswalk can help to determine the traffic in a particulararea, and changes in that count can be monitored over time to attempt todetermine density or volume as a factor of time. Tracking these objectsover time can help to determine aspects such as traffic flow and pointsof congestion. Determining irregularities in density, behavior, orpatterns can help to identify situations such as accidents or otherunexpected incidents.

The ability to obtain the image data and provide data regardingrecognized objects could be offered as a standalone system that can beoperated by agencies or entities such as traffic departments and othergovernmental agencies. The data also can be provided as part of aservice, whereby an organization collects and analyzes the image data,and provides the data as part of a one-time project, ongoing monitoringproject, or other such package. The customer of the service can specifythe type of data desired, as well as the frequency of the data or lengthof monitoring, and can be charged accordingly. In some embodiments thedata might be published as part of a subscription service, whereby amobile app provider or other such entity can obtain a subscription inorder to publish or obtain the data for purposes such as navigation androute determination. Such data also can be used to help identifyaccidents, construction, congestion, and other such occurrences.

As mentioned, many of the examples herein utilize image data captured byone or more cameras with a view of an area of interest. In at least someembodiments these cameras can be provided using one or more drones,which can each include one or more cameras or other sensors forcapturing the image data. These can include, for example, digital stillcameras, digital video cameras, infrared detectors, stereoscopiccameras, thermal sensors, motion sensors, proximity sensors, and othersuch sensors or components. The image data can include one or moreimages, or video, indicating pixel values for pixel locations of thecamera sensor, for example, where the pixel values can represent datasuch as the intensity or color of ambient, infrared IR, or ultraviolet(UV) radiation detected by the sensor. A drone may also includenon-visual based sensors, such as radio or audio receivers, fordetecting energy emanating from various objects of interest. Theseenergy sources can include, for example, cell phone signals, voices,vehicle noises, and the like. This can include looking for distinctsignals or a total number of signals, as well as the bandwidth,congestion, or throughput of signals, among other such options. Audioand other signature data can help to determine aspects such as type ofvehicle, regions of activity, and the like, as well as providing anotherinput for counting or tracking purposes. The overall audio level anddirection of the audio can also provide an additional input forpotential locations of interest. A drone may include other cameras orsensors as well, as may be used for purposes such as crash avoidance,path determination, and flight control, among other such tasks. At leastsome of the data from these sensors may be used to attempt to increaseaccuracy of the object determination process. As mentioned elsewhereherein, the sensors can also include motion and orientation sensors thatcan help to account for apparent movement in the image data that is aresult of movement of the camera or drone used to capture the imagedata.

When capturing the image data as part of a monitoring process, forexample, one or more drones can be configured to hover over an area ofinterest, or follow a regular flight path over, or around, the area ofinterest. Depending upon the type of area being observed, as well asother factors such as the size or weight of the drone, there might be aspecific height or distance that the drone has to maintain within thearea, such as a height between 100 and 200 feet, or 200 and 400 feet,although various other heights are being proposed and may vary bylocation and jurisdiction, etc. It may then be important for at leastsome applications that the drones be able to maneuver to an optimallocation, or at least an appropriate location, from which to captureimage data for various objects or occurrences.

Accordingly, approaches in accordance with various embodiments utilizeat least some amount of object recognition and analysis on the dronesthemselves in order to determine changes in position and flight paththat can assist in obtaining appropriate image data. This can includeprocesses such as foreground detection and relatively simple objectrecognition in order to identify information such as density of objects,object movement and flow, etc. This data does not have to be incrediblyaccurate, but sufficient to enable the drone to determine an occurrenceof a type that the drone should investigate.

For example, FIG. 4A illustrates an example situation 400 wherein agroup consisting of three rotary drones 402 and one fixed-wing drone 408is configured to monitor objects of interest in a designated region,here a nine block area of a specific city. Each drone can fly at arelatively high level for purposes of monitoring, in order to recognizeobjects 406 such as vehicles and pedestrians, and determine when thereis a significant change in density, volume, flow, or other suchaspect(s). In this example a fixed-wing drone 408 flies at a highestaltitude to obtain an overview of a relatively large area, while eachrotary drone 402 can fly at a lower altitude in order to obtain dataover a specific section of that area. The drones 402, 408 can each dotheir own evaluation, can share data, or can otherwise communicate andtake advantage of the views or determinations of the other drones. Inthis example, there is an increase in number and density of people in anarea 404 associated with the main plaza. Accordingly, any or all of thedrones noticing this change can, as part of a feedback loop or othersuch feature or process, determine whether the change warrants furtherinvestigation according to various threshold, rules, or policies inplace for the drone control systems. In this example, one of the dronesdetermines that there is a change that meets a further investigationcriterion, and sends a message, request, or other set of information tothe other drones, either specifically identified or within a determinedregion, regarding the occurrence. In some embodiments this can cause oneor more of the drones to move to a location, or along a flight path,whereby the drone(s) will be able to obtain image data for views, orimproved views, of the area. In some embodiments one of the drones, suchas the fixed-wing drone 408 in this example, may be a “master” dronethat can cause other drones to maneuver to obtain specific views orfollow specific paths. In some embodiments any drone can become themaster for a given situation, based upon factors such as location,altitude, configuration, maneuverability, and the like. The master dronemay maintain a certain altitude, or may be a larger drone that may notbe able to maneuver as closely to objects of interest, among other suchoptions. If the people or objects in an area are densely packed in suchthat movement is minimal, it may be difficult to use lightweightbackground subtraction methods on a drone. In these situations, one ormore of the drones may transmit image data to a remote system foranalysis and object identification, etc. The remote system can also sendback information about the identified background regions in order forone or more of the drones to update their classifiers or training data,or otherwise be able to identify background more accurately for purposesof flight path determination and other aspects discussed herein.

In the example situation 400 of FIG. 4B, the drones 402 coordinate(either collectively or under direction of the “master” drone 408) tomove to positions whereby the drones 402 can each obtain image data forviews of the plaza where the increased activity is determined to occur.In this example, each drone is assigned to a specific portion of thearea, such that different views of the plaza can be obtained withoutunnecessary overlap or causing the drones to fly too closely to eachother. While the drones can be equipped with collision avoidance systemsand other such components, the drones can also be configured to flybased upon fields of view of their respective cameras, such that amaximum amount of unique data can be obtained from the drones that arepresent. Other approaches can be used as well, such as to cause dronesto capture overlapping or redundant data for purposes of improvingaccuracy and precision, etc. As mentioned elsewhere herein, thedifferent views can also be utilized to obtain three-dimensional dataand/or multiple views of objects of interest.

FIG. 4C illustrates a similar example situation in the same locationwherein traffic congestion is detected in a specific region. Thedetection can be the result of a density of vehicles exceeded adetermined threshold, the traffic pattern falling outside a normalrange, an amount of noise matching a congestion pattern, and/or othersuch factor(s). In this example, the master drone 408, which might havemore processing and memory capacity than the rotary drones, candetermine to send a subset of the drones 410 to investigate the incidentor irregularity. While all drones in the area can be directed to obtainadditional information in some embodiments, in this example the masterdrone 408 determines the number of drones to move to that area basedupon factors such as the size of the area of the incident, the type ofincident, the relative location of each drone, the confidence that theincident is an actionable incident, etc. The drones 410 can then movetowards the determined location and capture image/sensor data for thelocation, which can be analyzed on the drones 410 themselves,communicated to the master drone 408, and/or communicated to a remotesystem for analysis. As congestion increases, decreases, or shifts inlocation, drones can be reallocated as appropriate. The drones 410 canuse information about the direction of the congestion, and movement ofvehicles in other directions, to determine the likely location of thecause of the congestion in order to attempt to obtain additional viewsand information for, and around, that location. One of the other rotarydrones 412 that is not directed to investigate the incident can continuealong its current path or can be directed to hover in a specificlocation to obtain overview information, among other such options.

Even in situations without multiple drones, a single drone can utilizeobject determinations to adjust the flight path or determine areas forfurther investigation. For example, in the situation 500 of FIG. 5A asingle drone 502 might be following its standard flight path over acity, then determine that there is unusual activity in a certain area orlocation. In some embodiments the drone may be configured toautomatically move towards that area in order to obtain additionalinformation. In some embodiments the drone may first analyze the data todetermine whether the information obtained for the area meets a minimumconfidence threshold, such that the objects are being identified with anacceptable level of accuracy. If so, the drone can continue its flightpath or otherwise maintain its current altitude. If the informationobtained does not meet a threshold or criteria, or if there is adifferent threshold for unusual activity, the drone can analyze thesituation and determine an appropriate location or path to follow inorder to obtain additional information to increase the confidencevalues. This can include, for example, translating to the appropriatearea (or as close as possible, respecting distance regulations and nofly zones, for example) and dropping to an altitude, such as near aminimum allowable altitude, whereby the drone can capture a larger,higher resolution view of the objects as illustrated in the examplesituation 520 of FIG. 5B. As mentioned, in some embodiments the dronemay be limited in its proximity to humans, for example, such that anappropriate location or flight path should be determined to enable thecamera to get as close to the objects as possible, or at leastpractical, while observing all corresponding regulations.

In some embodiments a drone can be configured to monitor a certainlocation or type of location. For example, in the example situation 540of FIG. 5C a drone 502 is instructed to monitor one or moreintersections over a period of time. This monitoring can includedetermining the presence and locations of objects such as pedestrians,bicycles, and vehicles, and tracking their movement. The monitoring canalso involve determining factors such as the state of a traffic signalor cross-walk signal. The drone can analyze the captured information todetermine when pedestrians or bicycles are crossing with or against thelight, as well as how fast vehicles are moving through the intersectionand how many vehicles pass through the intersection against the light.This information can determine potentially dangerous intersections, andthe ways in which those intersections are dangerous. For example, thedrone data might indicate that vehicles in a first direction at a firstintersection tend to speed through the intersection, and at a secondintersection pedestrians and bicycles might cross against the light morethan normal. And these patterns might vary by time of day and day of theweek, based on when people are commuting, etc. This information can thenbe analyzed, such as by a backend system, to identify potential dangerssuch that mechanisms can be put in place to reduce those dangers andprevent accidents or other such undesired occurrences. In someembodiments this can be provided as part of a monitoring service,whereby a city or community can request the monitoring be done over aperiod of time for a particular area or set of locations, and theresulting data or analysis of the data can be provided at appropriatetimes.

It should be noted that directly overhead views may not be optimal in atleast some situations. For example, it may be difficult to identify aperson wearing a hat or holding an umbrella when flying directly overthat person. A view such as a side or perspective view, which canprovide at least some feature points for the user's face or pose, maybepreferred in at least some embodiments. Accordingly, the flight controlsoftware might determine the locations of the objects of interest, thendetermine the appropriate flight plan to use to obtain the desired viewsof those objects of interest. Further as mentioned, in some embodimentsit may be desirable to capture views of objects from multiple angles inorder to improve confidence levels. For example, a view of a person fromthe front, where the face is visible, may provide the highest level ofconfidence for a human object where a view from the side might be theoptimal location for a bicycle, such that it may be desirable to obtainmultiple views, or at least move around an object of interest until aminimum confidence level is obtained.

Multiple views can be obtained using a single drone with an appropriateflight path. While this can help to identify objects, the time needed tomaneuver to the various views can enable the objects to move, rotate, orleave the area such that it may not be possible to obtain the variousviews. Accordingly, for a single drone the system can be configured touse as much data and as many views of an object as may be available. Iftwo or more drones 606, 608 are available for an area, as illustrated inthe example environment 600 of FIG. 6, those drones can be configured toconcurrently capture image data representing different views of one ormore objects of interest. The data can be time synchronized such thatthe corresponding views can be correlated, enabling more accuratedetermination of objects and potentially the generation ofthree-dimensional models or representations of the objects. Further, theability to obtain two different views from determinable viewpointsenables the capturing of stereoscopic image data, whereby the disparityprovides information about distance and scale. For example, the people602, 604 in FIG. 6 are both contained within the fields of view 610, 612of the cameras of the respective drones 606, 608. If, using sensors suchas position sensors, geographic sensors, altimeters, proximity sensors,and/or other such sensors, the drones 606, 608 are able to determinetheir relative positions, the data captured by each camera can becorrelated to provide disparity information that varies with distance.By knowing the optical properties of the camera assemblies and relativepositions, the disparity data can be used to obtain distance anddimension data for the people 602, 604 and other objects in the scene.The dimension data can help to increase the confidence in the objects ofinterest. For example, if the object being identified is a doll oraction figure that is only three inches tall, then even though thefeature recognition process might identify the action figure as a humanwith a minimum level of confidence, the dimensions can indicate that theobject is actually not an adult human. Similarly, if the object is atwelve foot tall statue, the dimension data can be used to rule out thepossibility, at least with a very high likelihood, that the object is anadult human. Various other features can be used to improve confidence inother embodiments as well, such as color analysis and the like. Forexample, if a statue object is monochrome bronze then the statue can beruled out as a human with high likelihood even if the feature pointsmatch a human object according to the appropriate classifier. Othersensors that are capable of identifying heat signatures or other dataindicative of a human object can be used to increase confidence as wellwithin the scope of various embodiments.

The ability to quickly recognize objects from a drone, as well as theability to utilize different types of data to make those determinations,can provide significant value in other situations as well. For example,in the situation 700 of FIG. 7A a drone 702 is flying over a forest aspart of a search and rescue operation. In this case, the density of thetrees can make it difficult for the drone to get a sufficient view of aperson to make the determination with a high degree of confidence basedon image data from a flight altitude alone. Using approaches discussedand suggested herein, the drone could fly over the area capturing imagedata to do quick foreground separation and image analysis to attempt todetermine any objects that match a human with even a very low confidencelevel, such as may be enough to avoid noise and excessive falsepositives but sufficient to identify a potential human when only aportion of that human is visible. In security operations, the drone maynot be looking for a particular person but any person in an area at aparticular time, whereby the drone can perform an action such as toattempt to recognize the person, send image data to security personnel,sound an alarm, or perform another such action.

In addition to image data, heat signature data can be captured andanalyzed concurrently in order to attempt to improve the confidence inhuman detection determinations. A relatively low level of confidence,such as at least 20% confidence, may be sufficient to cause the drone702 to change a flight path to be able to move closer to the potentialobject of interest 704 and capture a larger and/or higher resolutionview of the object. The ability to perform quick object recognition onthe drone and combine this with heat signature or other such data canenable the drone to scan a large area and move into any regions thatcontain a potential object of interest. The drone can continue in adirection towards the object 704 until the confidence level drops belowa minimum amount or the object is identified as a different type ofobject. In other embodiments, the drone can continue towards the object704 at least until sufficient time as the object is identified with asufficient level of confidence that the object has been recognized as aperson. In some embodiments a facial recognition process or other suchprocess can be used to attempt to actually identify the located personas the person of interest. If the person is identified as the person ofinterest, an appropriate action can be taken, such as to send a requestfor rescue or at least send a notification that the person has beenlocated. The coordinates of the person and/or drone also can be sent inat least some embodiments. High resolution image data can be transferredto a remote system to help with the determination as well, where thatsystem may have more processing power and more advanced facialrecognition algorithms, or other such resources. In some embodimentswhere the drone is of sufficient strength and power, and where theperson is able to be moved, the drone can also potentially be caused tolift the person out of the area and transport them to a designatedlocation.

The ability to utilize heat signatures and train classifiers (or HOGdescriptors, etc.) for certain types of objects can enable other typesof determinations and uses as well. For example, in the situation 720 ofFIG. 7B there are a few isolated fires 722, 724 burning in a remoteforest. The ability to have drones flying over the forest and quicklydetect small fires soon after they start can help the fires to be foughtbefore those fires become unmanageable. If possible, the drone can alsopotentially drop extinguishing material in order to put out the firewhile such an approach may still be effective. As with other embodimentsdiscussed above, the drone can also communicate wirelessly with otherdrones to cause those drones to move to the area to help dropextinguishing material as well. If such capability is not present, thedrones can at least capture additional image information (as may includevisual and heat signature data) in order to help provide informationabout the current state of the fire in order to help guide firefightersto the appropriate locations. Classifiers can be trained to detectsmoke, flames, heat signatures, or other objects that may be indicativeof fires or other such occurrences. In at least some embodiments thedrones can be directed to move towards the area until sufficientinformation is available to determine the size of the fire, as well asthe presence of humans near the fire and the type of activity of thosehumans, in order to determine whether the fire is likely a campfire orother contained fire that does not require attention. In at least someembodiments image data for such a fire may be transmitted to a specificlocation or address for review by a human just to ensure that the firedoes not require any type of official action. Drones can also becoordinated to fly in the area around the fire in order to identifystreams, cliffs, or other features that may naturally stop the spread ofthe fire in a particular direction, in order to help guide the fireteams to locations where they can be most effective. The ability tolocate rivers and cliffs can also help guide the firefighters along apath where they will be able to pass without significant effort ordeviation required. A drone can analyze potential paths and communicatewhether ground access is possible or whether only air access ispossible. The drones can also scan the area for humans, structures, orother objects that might be at risk from the fire(s).

As mentioned, in various embodiments there can be at least someprocessing performed on the drones, while at least some of theprocessing can be performed using a remote system or service. An exampleof such an environment 800 is illustrated in FIG. 8. In this example,two drones 802, 804 are each able to capture image data to be processedby a service offered using resources of a resource provider environment812, such as a cloud environment offered by a resource provider. Thedrones may be of the same or different types, operated by the same ordifferent entities and providing similar or different types ofinformation from similar or different areas. Each drone can communicatewirelessly with one or more base stations 806, 808, either the same ordifferent station operated by the same or different entities, which cancause information to be transmitted across at least one network 810 tobe received by an interface layer 814 of the resource providerenvironment 812. The network 810 can be any appropriate network, such asone or more wired or wireless networks as may include a cellularnetwork, the Internet, an intranet, a local area network (LAN), and thelike. The data transmitted can include any appropriate data discussed orsuggested herein, as may include image data, position data, sensor data,identifier data, object description data, and the like.

The data can be received to an interface, such as an applicationprogramming interface (API) or other such interface of the interfacelayer 814. The interface layer can include any of a number of componentsknown for receiving and routing information in an environment, as mayinclude various routers, load balancers, network switches, and othersuch components. The data can be stored to a data store 820 or othersuch repository for analysis by a data analyzer 816 or other suchsystem, service, component, application, or device. In some embodimentswhere the data relates to routine monitoring, the data may be analyzedat specific times or intervals. In embodiments where the data relates tospecific events or occurrences, or whether otherwise indicated by thedata or message received from the drone, the data analyzer might loadthe data into resident memory and analyze the data immediately, or assoon as possible within the context of the environment. The dataanalyzer can perform various analytical tasks discussed and suggestedherein, such as to count objects of interest in certain locations overtime, search for patterns in object movement, perform more accurateobject determinations, and the like. For routine monitoring and othernon-critical data, the results can be stored back to the data store 820(or a different data store or repository) for subsequent retrieval by acomponent such as a reporting engine 818, which can aggregate therelevant data and generate a report or other such output that can beprovided to a third party 822 or other entity who may have subscribed tothe service or otherwise paid or obtained the rights for such a report.For critical data, such as for a fire, accident, or other suchoccurrence, the reporting engine might be notified by the data analyzerright away, such that the reporting engine can quickly send anotification to the appropriate entity or entities, such as a policedepartment, ambulance dispatch, fire department, etc. Various otherreports can be generated as well as would be apparent to one of ordinaryskill in the art in light of the teachings and suggestions containedherein. The data can be stored over time for subsequent analysis andcomparison, as may be useful in determining trends or patterns that canbe based at least in part upon historical behavior data or other suchinformation.

In some embodiments a drone 802 can be received to a docking station,which can be an internal docking station 826 of the resource providerenvironment or an external docking station 824 that may be provided by acustomer or a third party. In the docking station the drone can rechargeits batteries and have any appropriate maintenance or other such serviceperformed. The drone also can connect to the docking station in order totransmit data to and from the data analyzer 816, data store 820, orother such location. In some embodiments the drone will upload all itsimage and sensor data to the resource provider environment over a wireddata connection of the docking station. The drone can also receive datafrom the environment 812, such as new configuration data, trainedmodels, flight paths, and the like. The drone also can have variousother tasks performed while in the docking station, such as may includedata removal, virus scanning, software updating, and the like.

A drone, remotely piloted aircraft (RPA), or unmanned aerial vehicle(UAV) can include various cameras, sensors, and other components thatenable the drone to capture and transmit the relevant data. An exampleof such a drone 850 is illustrated in FIG. 8. In this example, the droneis a multi-rotor, fixed-pitch aircraft, such as a quadcopter with fourseparate motors and rotors 854, although fixed wing designs with launchmechanisms and other types of aircraft can be used as well within thescope of the various embodiments. The method of flight and types ofengines, flight mechanisms, and launch mechanisms are not critical to atleast some of the embodiments, as many embodiments instead rely only onthe drone having the ability to maneuver to a determined location as maybe determined by an appropriate flight control system. While the dronecan be guided by remote control in some embodiments, in otherembodiments the drone is controlled autonomously by an onboard computerand/or control system.

In this example the drone has a housing 852 made out of a lightweightmaterial such as a polymer, fiberglass, or carbon fiber material,although various other materials can be utilized as well that providefor strength and durability while adding as little weight as possible.The drone will include at least one camera 856 for capturing image datawithin a capture range of the drone. The camera can be any appropriatecamera, as may include a complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor (CMOS),charge coupled device (CCD), or other such sensor or detector capable ofcapturing light energy over a determined spectrum, as may includeportions of the visible, infrared, and/or ultraviolet spectrum. Thecamera may be part of an assembly that includes appropriate optics,lenses, focusing elements, shutters, and other such elements for imagecapture by a single camera, set of cameras, stereoscopic camera, orother such configuration. The camera can be configured to perform taskssuch as autofocusing, zoom (optical or digital), brightness and coloradjustments, and the like. As mentioned, the drone can include at leastsome amount of memory 866 for storing at least a portion of the imagedata, at least temporarily on the drone. The data can be stored at leastuntil such time as one or more processors 860 of the drone are able toanalyze at least a portion of the data and/or at least a portion of thedata is able to be communicated, via a wireless communication device870, to a base station or remote system or server for analysis. Thememory can include any appropriate memory, or combination thereof, asmay include flash memory or another such non-transitory, non-volatilecomputer-readable storage medium. The memory and/or data storage on thedrone may also include devices such as memory cards, USB flash drives,solid state drives, RAM, optical drives, magnetic drives, and the like.

In order to operate the drone, the processor can work with a flightcontrol system 868 that can be charged with determining the direction offlight for the drone and sending the appropriate signals to the motor(s)for the rotors 854 or other flight mechanism in order to cause the droneto move in the desired direction. The control system can utilize flightpath data stored in memory 866, as well as dynamic decisions made by theprocessor(s) 860 or instructions received over the wirelesscommunication device 870, among other such options. The motor(s) can beany appropriate motor used for such aircraft, as may include brushlessmotors for smaller drones to more conventional aircraft motors forlarger aircraft. There can be various other drive mechanisms, controlsystems, balancing components, or other elements used with such systems.

The example drone 850 also includes one or more motion and/ororientation sensors 864. These can include, for example, gyroscopes,electronic compasses, inertial sensors, accelerometers, magnetometers,and the like. These sensors can be used to determine motion of thedevice, which can help provide feedback to the control system 868 aswell as to provide information to the processor(s) 860 about changes inlocation and orientation of the drone, which can be used to remove, oraccount for, apparent motion in the image data as a result of the drone.The camera 856 may include image stabilization components and/orsoftware, but these only account for small vibrations, shaking, orvariation in point of view. By knowing changes in orientation andposition from the appropriate sensor(s), changes in position of objectsin the image data can be accounted for when those changes are due tomotion of the drone. This can help to determine background regions, forexample, where the background separation process relies on backgroundthat does not significantly change over time but due to motion of thedrone the background would change in the captured image data. Theability to subtract out the effects of the motion, for example, canenable the background image data to be identified as not moving overtime. As an example, if the drone translates in one direction that wouldcause a ten pixel shift a first direction in the image data, theposition information in the image data can be shifted by ten pixels inthe other direction to account for the movement. A similar effect wouldbe experienced with rotation, where the angular change would affect theimage data by a determined angular extent. If the approximate distanceto the objects of interest is known, such as from an altimeter or othersuch component, then the image data can be compensated accordingly.Various other motion adjustments can be performed on the image data aswould be apparent to one of ordinary skill in the art in light of theteachings and suggestions contained herein.

The drone can include other components as well, such as one or morerechargeable batteries 862 or other such power sources, as may receivepower from solar, wireless, or other such sources while in flight. Thedrone can also include a proximity sensor 858, ultrasonic sensor, orother sensor capable of detecting the proximity or location of objectsto assist in crash avoidance. Other components can be used as well, suchas may include autopilot systems, airspeed sensors, propeller balancers,crash support elements, and the like.

As mentioned, such drones and backend systems can work together toprovide various data determined using image and/or sensor data capturedfrom one or more cameras. FIG. 9 illustrates one example process 900 forreturning a count of objects of interest in a determined area or regionthat can be utilized in accordance with various embodiments. It shouldbe understood that, for this and other processes discussed herein, therecan be additional, fewer, or alternative steps, performed in similar oralternative steps, or in parallel, within the scope of the variousembodiments unless otherwise stated. In this example, image data iscaptured 902 using one or more cameras on a drone or other such unmannedaerial vehicle. As mentioned, the image data can be stored on the droneand/or transmitted to a remote system or service for analysis. As partof the analysis, the stationary background region can be determined andremoved 904 or otherwise excluded from the object recognition process.Motion and/or orientation data from one or more sensors of the drone canbe used to account for motion effects in the image data due to motion ofthe drone during the capture process. If the image data is video data,key frames or other video frames can be selected for analysis, at leaston the drone. The remaining foreground objects can be analyzed 906 by acomputer vision process using one or more classifiers trained on datafor the particular types of objects of interest. These can include, forexample, people, animals, and types of vehicle, among other optionsdiscussed and suggested herein. Various other processes can be used toanalyze the image data for the foreground objects as well within thescope of the various embodiments.

The computer vision process can generate determinations for the types ofobjects of interest, along with confidence scores for eachdetermination. A minimum confidence threshold can be set in order tocause an object of interest to be classified as the type of objectdetermined by the computer vision process. In some embodiments the dronecan be configured to attempt to obtain additional image data or otherinformation (i.e., heat or radio signatures) in order to increase theconfidence score to a level that at least meets the threshold or anotherdetermination criterion. If no object of interest (of a type whereinterest has been designated) is determined 908 or located, then a zerocount or other such result can be returned 910. This can occur, forexample, when the drone is searching for an object such as a person in acanyon and is unable to locate a human in the region. If one or moreobjects are able to located, the number of such objects can be counted912 or otherwise determined, and that count can be returned 914 orotherwise provided to the appropriate party. In some embodiments theresults may be stored in a database or other repository for subsequentretrieval. As mentioned, in some embodiments a first, near-real timecount can be performed on the drone for purposes of flight pathdetermination, for example, while a second more accurate count can bedetermined offline that can provide more accurate results but requiresmore time and/or resource capacity. This can include, for example,analyzing at least some of the results with a truth verificationprocess, which can use humans, neural networks, or other such approachesto verify that the determinations made for the objects were correct.Information about the truthfulness can be used to train the models orupdate the signatures, features, or patterns, used for object detection,motion prediction, and other such factors, as part of an iterativelearning process. Other analysis can be performed on the data asdiscussed herein, such as may include pattern detection, motion pathdetermination, incident detection, and the like.

FIG. 10 illustrates an example process 1000 that can be used todetermine the flight path of a drone in accordance with variousembodiments, which can be used in conjunction with the process of FIG.9. In this example, image data is obtained 1002 using at least onecamera or sensor of the drone, such as discussed with respect to theprocess of FIG. 9. Objects of interest can be identified 1004 from theimage data. This can include using a process such as described withrespect to FIG. 9, wherein background and motion is accounted for inorder to identify foreground objects, which can then be analyzed using acomputer vision algorithm or similar process. In other embodiments,information about the locations of various objects of interest can bereceived from a process such as the object identification process ofFIG. 9 as input. Object data can also be received from a remote systemor service performing the determination or another such source. Once thelocations or presence of the objects of interest are located, thedensity of the objects of interest in different regions can bedetermined 1006. The flight path can then be determined 1008 or modifiedbased at least in part upon the density data. For example, if there isno density that exceeds a density threshold or no variation in densitythat meets a determined criterion then the flight path may not bemodified, and may continue along a determined path that may take intoaccount object location, no fly zones, crash avoidance, and pathguidance instructions, among other such options. If there is a densityor density variation that meets a determined threshold or variationcriteria, then the flight path can be modified based at least in partupon this information. For example, if a crowd of people is gathered ata particular location or a group of vehicles is determined to becongested at a particular intersection, the flight path can be modifiedto cause the drone to move to get a better view of the location, whichcan include flying over and/or near the location in order to capturemore detailed image data for further analysis. In at least someembodiments the factors used in determining the flight path can beweighted, such that crash avoidance can be more important in determiningthe flight path than getting an optimal camera view of a person, forexample. The flight path data can then be provided 1010 to the flightpath control system, either from a processor on the drone itself or froma remote system or server, among other such options. As mentioned,flight path modification data provided from a remote system or sourcecan still be overridden by crash avoidance systems or other such systemson the drone itself. For regions with a very high density of objects,particularly where those objects have relatively small representationsin the image data, Fourier transforms and other such data manipulationsand analyses can be used to obtain information about the high densityobjects, as well as quick changes in vision and other such occurrences.

The ability to capture and analyze data on the drone for purposes ofdetermining the flight path can help to improve the performance of thedrone and/or the drone control system. For example, the ability toperform at least a rough analysis on the drone enables the drone to makereal time flight decisions without having to wait for data to becommunicated to, processed by, and received from a remote system orservice. This reduces flight time, which conserves resources such asbattery power and motor usage. The ability to determine flight paths onthe drone also enables sufficient image data to be obtained to performthe desired task, such as counting or locating objects of interest, evenif an adequate wireless signal is unavailable. The ability to detectobjects or occurrences such as fires can also help to avoid damage tothe drone and other such issues.

In addition to many of the examples and uses presented above, theability to locate and determine counts, density, and motion of objectsof interest can be used to obtain information for various events aswell. For example, during an occurrence such as a parade, riot, or flashmob, drones can use this information to identify where the objects ofinterest are most likely to be, and can follow those objects (or movetowards a location from which those objects are moving) and count themalong the way. If a drone has a designated portion of a parade route,for example, the drone can use object recognition to determine thepresence of bands, floats, and other such objects or groups of objectsin order to fly towards those objects to obtain image data and othersuch information. Similar uses can be found for events such as marathonsand triathlons, where the drones can determine the number of athletes,the density of athletes at various locations along the route, patternsof motion, crowd locations or movements, spectator count, and other suchinformation. For spontaneous events or occurrences, such as riots, flashmobs, or other unplanned gatherings, the drones can analyze the patternof motion to determine potential locations of interest as discussedelsewhere herein. Other types of data can assist in this determination,as sounds such as yelling, screaming, gun shots, or other such soundscan be indicative of a certain type of occurrence. Similarly, a suddenhuge increase in the number of phone calls being made, or messages beingsent, can be indicative of an event of interest.

In some embodiments a group of drones can perform a statistical survey,where a higher flying drone can identify areas with high, medium, andlow density groups and one or more lower flying drones can count thepopulation in each group. The results from the lower drones can be usedto calibrate the higher flying drone's counting process for greaterprecision.

While for purposes such as covering sporting events and parades thedensity and other information may be useful for moving towards groups ofpeople, the density, count, and motion information can also be usefulfor avoiding areas with crowds of people for safety, privacy, annoyance,and other such concerns. For example, a drone can be instructed to flyalong a route in a specified region, where the route is more of a“guideline” and the drone is able to deviate from that path up to aspecified amount, where the drone is to avoid people to the extentpossible. This can include flying to one side of the flight path or theother, changing direction along the path, covering different parts ofthe path at different times, or other such actions. If the drone doesnot have a specific path in the region, then the flight path can bedetermined to capture the necessary image data for the region but do sowhile following a path that minimizes, to the extent possible, theproximity of the drone to humans, dwellings, vehicles, or otheridentified objects in that region. This information also can be fed toother drones to help them adjust their flight paths as appropriate. Inthe event that the drone must make an unexpected landing, such as may bedue to a loss of power or problem with a rotor engine, for example, thedensity determinations can also be used to determine an optimal (or atleast preferred) location to land the drone. The ability to select anarea that is away from the majority of people in an area can help toreduce the potential safety risks, as well as to reduce the fear orconcern of people in the area should a drone have to land unexpectedly.

As the resolution of cameras increases and the accuracy of objectrecognition from drones increases, the counting of other types ofobjects can be performed as well within the scope of the variousembodiments. For example, a drone-enabled approach can be configured tocount the occurrence of items such as shopping bags with a store logo,shoes with a brand logo, coffee cups with particular logos or designs,and even particular types of products for purposes of tracking locationsand density of customers in certain areas, for purposes such asdetermining where to place advertising or stores. Drones can also beconfigured to identify things like weapons or illegal objects forpurposes of safety and security. Once the appropriate trainedclassifiers, HOG descriptors, or other elements are available for theparticular type of object, various approaches discussed and suggestedherein can be used to perform various types of operations with respectto those types of objects.

FIG. 11 illustrates a set of basic components of an example computingdevice 1100 that can be used to implement aspects of the variousembodiments, such as to analyze image data or generate flight path datato be communicated to a drone, among other such options. In thisexample, the device includes at least one processor 1102 for executinginstructions. The instructions can be received from a remote sourceand/or stored in a memory element 1104 of the computing device. A devicecan include many types of memory, data storage or computer-readablemedia, with the memory being fixed or removable in various embodiments.The device typically will include at least one display element 1106,such as a touch-sensitive display screen, organic light emitting diode(OLED) or liquid crystal display (LCD). The device can include at leastone communication component 1108, as may enable wired and/or wirelesscommunication of voice and/or data signals over a network such as acellular network, a radio network, the Internet, a Wi-Fi network,BLUETOOTH, and the like. The device can include at least one additionalinput device 1110 able to receive conventional input from a user. Thisconventional input can include, for example, a push button, touch pad,touch screen, wheel, joystick, keyboard, mouse, trackball, camera,microphone, keypad or any other such device or element whereby a usercan input a command to the device. These I/O devices could even beconnected by a wireless infrared or Bluetooth or other link as well insome embodiments. In some embodiments, however, such a device might becontrolled only through a combination of visual and audio commands suchthat a user can control the device without having to be in contact withthe device.

Client devices used to perform aspects of various embodiments caninclude any appropriate devices operable to send and receive requests,messages, or information over an appropriate network and conveyinformation back to a user of the device. Examples of such clientdevices include personal computers, smart phones, handheld messagingdevices, wearable computers, laptop computers, and the like. The networkcan include any appropriate network, including an intranet, theInternet, a cellular network, a local area network (LAN), or any othersuch network or combination thereof. Components used for such a systemcan depend at least in part upon the type of network and/or environmentselected. Protocols and components for communicating via such a networkare well known and will not be discussed herein in detail. Variousaspects can be implemented as part of at least one service or Webservice, such as may be part of a service-oriented architecture. Inembodiments utilizing a Web server, the Web server can run any of avariety of server or mid-tier applications, including HTTP servers, FTPservers, CGI servers, data servers, Java servers, and businessapplication servers. The server(s) also may be capable of executingprograms or scripts in response requests from user devices, such as byexecuting one or more Web applications that may be implemented as one ormore scripts or programs written in any appropriate programminglanguage.

Storage media and other non-transitory computer readable media forcontaining code, or portions of code, can include any appropriate mediaknown or used in the art, including storage media and communicationmedia, such as but not limited to volatile and non-volatile, removableand non-removable media implemented in any method or technology forstorage of information such as computer readable instructions, datastructures, program modules, or other data, including RAM, ROM, EEPROM,flash memory or other memory technology, CD-ROM, digital versatile disk(DVD) or other optical storage, magnetic cassettes, magnetic tape,magnetic disk storage or other magnetic storage devices, or any othermedium which can be used to store the desired information and which canbe accessed by the a system device. Based on the disclosure andteachings provided herein, a person of ordinary skill in the art willappreciate other ways and/or methods to implement the variousembodiments.

The specification and drawings are, accordingly, to be regarded in anillustrative rather than a restrictive sense. It will, however, beevident that various modifications and changes may be made thereuntowithout departing from the broader spirit and scope of the invention asset forth in the claims.

What is claimed is:
 1. A device for monitoring motion of objects ofinterest, comprising: a vehicle body; a flight mechanism for enablingthe vehicle body to be directed along an aerial flight path; at leastone camera; at least one device sensor including at least one of anorientation sensor or a motion sensor; at least one processor; andmemory storing instructions that, when executed by the at least oneprocessor, cause the device to: capture, as the device follows at leasta portion of the aerial flight path during the period of time, imagedata using the at least one camera, the portion of the aerial flightpath selected such that an area of interest is within a field of view ofthe at least one camera during the period of time; determine devicemotion data for the device, over the period of time, using data from theat least one device sensor; analyze, using the at least one processor,the image data to recognize instances of at least one type of object ofinterest represented in the image data and corresponding to the area ofinterest, the at least one type of object of interest including at leastone of a pedestrian, a motorized vehicle, or a bicycle; determine anumber of the instances of the at least one type of object of interestrepresented in the image data, each of the number of instances having anassociated confidence level for recognition; determine a respective pathof motion for each of at least a subset of the instances, the respectivepath of motion determined using the device motion data to account formotion effects in the image data resulting from movement of the device;and transmit information about the number of instances of the at leastone type of object of interest and the respective path of motion for thearea of interest over the period of time.
 2. The device of claim 1,wherein the instructions when executed further cause the device to:determine a sub-region within the area of interest where at least oneobject of interest has an associated confidence level that falls below aminimum confidence threshold; and modify the aerial flight path to causethe camera to capture more detailed image data for the at least oneobject of interest.
 3. The device of claim 1, wherein the instructionswhen executed further cause the device to: transfer the image data to adata analysis system for subsequent analysis, the data analysis systemconfigured to use a deep neural network-based analysis process togenerate a second determination of the number of instances of the atleast one type of object of interest, the data analysis systemconfigured to provide updated training data to the device based at leastin part from the second determination.
 4. The device of claim 1, furthercomprising: a signal sensor capable of detecting signal information fromat least a subset of the instances of at least one type of object ofinterest, the determining of at least one of the number of the instancesor the respective path of motion being based at least in part upon thesignal information.
 5. The device of claim 1, wherein the instructionswhen executed further cause the device to: determine, based at least inpart upon location data and the respective path of motion for theinstances of the objects of interest, an irregular object behavior;sending a notification regarding the irregular object behavior; andattempting to capture additional image data regarding the irregularobject behavior.
 6. The device of claim 5, wherein the irregular objectbehavior corresponds to at least one of a demonstration, a riot, a flashmob, an accident, an emergency, or a point of congestion.
 7. The deviceof claim 5, wherein the device is a first unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV),and wherein the notification is sent to at least one other UAV in orderto cause the at least one other UAV to move toward a location of theirregular object behavior for purposes of capturing additional imagedata corresponding to the irregular object behavior.
 8. A method ofdetermining instances of objects of interest, comprising: capturing,using a device sensor of an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV), sensor datafor an area of interest; analyzing, using at least one processor of theUAV, the sensor data to recognize instances of objects of interestrepresented in the sensor data, the instances recognized using at leastone object recognition algorithm executed by the at least one processorof the UAV; determining at least one of a number of the instances or arespective location of each of the instances of the objects of interestwithin the area of interest; and providing summary data includinginformation about at least one of the number of instances or therespective locations within the area of interest.
 9. The method of claim8, further comprising: capturing the sensor data over a period of time;determining paths of motion for the objects of interest; and includinginformation about the paths of motion in the summary data.
 10. Themethod of claim 8, further comprising: analyzing the one or more pathsof motion to determine a location of an occurrence associated with thepaths of motion, and causing the UAV to fly along a flight path enablingthe camera to capture additional sensor information corresponding to thelocation of the occurrence.
 11. The method of claim 8, wherein theoccurrence is one of a parade, a demonstration, a spontaneous gathering,a traffic flow, traffic congestion, an accident, a flash mob, a concert,a riot, a fire, or a deviation from an expected pattern of objectmotion.
 12. The method of claim 8, further comprising: sendinginstruction data to at least a second UAV to cause the second UAV tocapture a different set of sensor data with respect to the area ofinterest.
 13. The method of claim 8, further comprising: capturingadditional sensor data using at least a second sensor on the device, theadditional sensor data including at least one of heat signature data,radio frequency data, audio data, or motion data; and using theadditional sensor data to determine the at least one of a number of theinstances or a respective location of each of the instances of theobjects within the area of interest.
 14. The method of claim 8, furthercomprising: determining, using at least one of an orientation sensor ora motion sensor, motion data for the UAV over a period of time in whichthe sensor data is captured; and using the motion data to account forchanges in positions of the objects of interest in the sensor data thatcorrespond to movement of the UAV.
 15. The method of claim 8, furthercomprising: modifying a flight path of the UAV based at least in partupon at least one of a density, a movement, a number, or an unexpectedaction of at least a subset of the objects of interest.
 16. The methodof claim 8, wherein the sensor data includes at least one of heatsignature data, radio frequency data, audio data, motion data, ambientlight image data, infrared image data, or stereoscopic image data.
 17. Amethod of monitoring objects of interest in a designated area,comprising: determining a regular flight path for an unmanned aerialvehicle (UAV) in order to enable a camera of the UAV to have at least aportion of the designated area in a field of view over a period of timefor the monitoring; capturing, using the camera, image datacorresponding to the designated area; performing a first analysis of theimage data to recognize objects of interest located within thedesignated area; based at least in part upon at least one of a locationor a movement of at least a subset of the objects of interest, modifyingthe regular flight path to enable capturing of additional image dataenabling increased accuracy of recognition of the one or more objects ofinterest within the area of interest; and transmitting report dataindicating at least one of a number, a location, a density, or amovement of the objects of interest within the designated area over theperiod of time.
 18. The method of claim 17, further comprising:transmitting the image data to a processing system, whereby theprocessing system is enabled to perform a second analysis of the imagedata using a more robust object detection algorithm to generate a moreaccurate recognition of objects of interest represented in the imagedata.
 19. The method of claim 17, wherein the report data includes atleast one of types of traffic, congestion points, patterns of motion,changes in traffic patterns over time, different paths of motion fordifferent types of objects, unusual movements, and unexpectedoccurrences.
 20. The method of claim 17, wherein the report data isupdated over time for the designated area as part of a subscriptionservice to which a customer has subscribed, the customer enabled tospecify at least one of the designated area, the period of time, afrequency of reporting, and one or more types of the objects ofinterest.
 21. The method of claim 17, wherein image data from aplurality of UAVs is aggregated before analysis, the image datarepresenting different viewpoints and capable of being used to generatethree-dimensional representations of at least a subset of the designatedregion and the objects of interest.
 22. The method of claim 17, furthercomprising: determining, using the image data, a state of one or moretraffic signals in the designated area; and determining differentpatterns of motion of different types of objects for each of the statesand for each of the traffic signals in the designated areas, thedifferent patterns of motion being included in the report data.